This year, due to the pandemic, the College Board has made some dramatic changes to the AP tests. They will now be abbreviated, 45 minute long exams that you are able to take at home.

Content Coverage:

AP US History: Units 1-7

AP US Government & Politics: Units 1-3

Since we reached these benchmarks in each of my classes, we will be reviewing this content for the rest of the year. They are also going to publish a schedule of review videos and lectures by AP teachers from all over the country.

Additionally, there will now be two testing dates. It appears one will be very soon and one will be closer to the original time in early may. They said they want to make sure that students have the option to test while the content is still fresh. Testing dates will be published to their website by April 3rd. I will also post an update here for you.

Once we have all the information, we will try to do a Google Hangouts or similar meeting or online discussion. I haven't decided which tools I'm going to use for everything while we are out, but I can tell you my goal is to keep it simple so you aren't getting 300 notifications from all kinds of different services and programs.

Hang in there, keep calm, and keep your distance!

Hello everyone,

I wanted to leave you a brief note here on my website on the off chance that you check it at some point this week. We won't be seeing each other for a few weeks at school. Things are changing rapidly in the world and we are living in a very historic moment. I'm not sure what's going to come next in terms of school, AP tests, assignments, credits, or anything else for that matter. I'm just as concerned and curious as you are about COVID-19 and what it means for the next few months.

As soon as I can, I'll update you via email with everything you need to know that concerns my classes. I'll also post everything here so that you can come to a central place to get info.

In the meantime, take care of yourselves, your friends, your family, and the others that need you. Don't over react, but also don't under react. This is a very serious global situation that we should treat with the appropriate level of gravity. If you're unsure how serious this is, start reading about what's happened in Italy - it's the first transparent case of what happens if a healthcare system is overrun by cases of this virus.

For now, your assignment is to just learn and be informed. I've taught all year how important it is to find, verify, and analyze information. This is a very important moment in your lives and in our history; it's time to put those skills and information finding/evaluation skills to use.

Let me know if you have any questions, I am still checking my work email.

Best,

Mr. Erfurth

Today you'll be introduced to the Personal Research Project that you will be working on in my US History class for juniors. Take a look at the expectations and get ready to learn about something in the 20th century that really interests you!

Please note that the following changes are made to my syllabus from last semester. This is to address accountability problems and to help students stay on track and learn to stay on track earlier in the semester, rather than waiting until the end to realize how far behind they are. The original policy was that all late work was accepted for up to 75% credit any time in the semester. The new policy is as follows.

Late Policy

• Late work will only be accepted up to four weeks after it was due.
• The late penalty is now 40% of the assignment’s value off the top.

Examples: 

• A 10 point assignment turned in late that would have scored an 8 will earn a 4.
• A 10 point assignment turned in late that would have scored 10 will earn a 6.

A late assignment that would earn zero credit after the penalty must be redone. For example, a 10 point assignment turned in late that would have earned a 3 will have to be redone. The original four week window still applies.

All excused absence, school event absences, and unexcused absences will follow the original policy as before. Please see my syllabus at erfurth.co/unified-syllabus for further details.

Welcome back! In many of my classes, I will be giving out research paper details for the semester project. Here are a few things to keep in mind, especially the top reasons for negative comments on papers:

https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/writing-a-good-history-paper

Make sure you take a look at the History Handbook here on my website for more details about how to do this well, both in terms of your writing and the process of research. A lot of similarities exist between what I wrote and what's in this document.

Ready or not, here I come. We have a lot of work to do and very little time to do it. Let's get everything in order as quickly as possible to wrap up the semester.

Thanks for being understanding about the fact that I've been out on paternity leave. It's not a time to catch up on my grading, but I did some anyway. Everything that wasn't graded will be, when it's graded. Just check Canvas for updates.

View the below flyer and the attached rules for information about this year's Constitution Day Essay Contest, open to all Soldotna High School students. Submissions can be sent to NErfurth@kpbsd.org for consideration! Get them turned in by September 17th, 2019. Winners will be announced on September 19th.

It's the first day of school! Welcome back and I hope that you are ready to be curious and to learn.

Here's today's schedule: